


Of Snakes and Strawberry Jam

by JuniperGentle



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Credence Barebone Lives, Credence Barebone Needs A Hug And Gets A Jam Sandwich, Gen, Lots of Learning, Newt somehow manages to be a background character in his own suitcase, Non-Dialogue, absolutely self-indulgent, and lives in the suitcase because why not, lots of introspection, these are Good Things, which is almost as good, yes the Runespoor is a character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9456953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuniperGentle/pseuds/JuniperGentle
Summary: In the depths of Newt's endless suitcase lives a snake.Or,In which Credence's progress is measured in jam sandwiches and an opportunistic three-headed serpent.





	

**Of Serpents and Strawberry Jam**

The idea is that Credence will be safer in the suitcase than he will in the outside world that has an instinctive, irrational hatred of anything that could be different, regardless of which side of which ocean he is.

Sadly, that theory doesn't quite hold together the way Newt intended it to, for the animals are far more intuitive regarding matters of Dark magic and the potential for danger than even he had anticipated. Credence is not surprised, which does surprise Newt, and saddens him as well. Credence knows how dangerous he can be, and how _easy_ it is to be dangerous. It is the only thing he really knows now.

The mooncalves fear him, and the Erumpent backs off as soon as he approaches. The Graphorns stay away too, even the fearless little male calf they've recently birthed. The Occamies are uncomfortable in his presence, though they still appreciate his help at feeding time. The Bowtruckles refuse to acknowledge him. The Swooping Evil does the opposite, and likes to sit on his head and squawk at him, which he doesn't like at all. The Demiguise alone genuinely seems to like him. Newt suggests that Dougal is babysitting him. Credence isn't sure whether to be insulted by this or not, and finally makes up his mind not to be when the little silver-grey monkey-thing offers him a jam sandwich in the middle of what he will come to recognise as a flashback. Apparently Dougal foresaw that the most likely outcome of a meltdown was very significant danger to every occupant of the suitcase, and subsequently that the most likely outcome of offering a sandwich was the prompt disruption of the black thoughts that had sparked the initial downward spiral.

Credence has never had jam before. Newt is _scandalised._

After that, Dougal takes it on himself to introduce all the creatures to him properly. The Occamies warm up to him a little – they still don't totally trust him, so when the bravest hatchling finally summons up the courage to slither into his arms, he feels a swoop in his stomach so fierce he imagines it's what flying must feel like. The Bowtruckles, however, are more stubborn even with Dougal's intervention, and Newt actually has to tell them off for biting when Credence tries to help out with feeding time. Dougal just sighs happily where he is perched on Credence's shoulders, and taps him on the cheek to tell him it's time to go and check on the Runespoor.

The Runespoor both adores and detests him. Well, to be more accurate, one head loves him – the one on the far left. The middle one can be swayed with a treat, or a pat. The right hand head hates him. It makes for an interesting time, especially as that is the head armed with lethal venom. Luckily, it is also the head that Newt has put in a bucket in order to prevent it from biting the other two heads, and as the left-hand head likes Credence so much, it is quite happy to come to his defence when the right-hand head becomes too aggressive.

Of all the creatures in the case, the Runespoor is the most enthusiastic about Credence's continued existence, except for Newt, of course. After all, Credence is the one who brings food and treats, and doesn't scold for biting.

Newt tells him that it's the biggest Runespoor he's ever seen – they're not meant to live long, as the heads tend to attack each other, and until he brought this one into the case he hadn't heard of any of them living beyond fifteen years. But this one, contrary to all known lore, has survived intact at least another ten years past all others of its kind, and grown to an immense size. It's nearly twenty feet long.

Credence loves it for the longest time without knowing why. And then one day in the middle of feeding time he works it out and all but collapses next to its den as the left-hand head croons snake-lullabies at him and the right-hand head tries to kill him, and breathes long and slow and deep as his mind roars _there is another there is another he did not lie there is another._

Of course, he still cares about the other creatures. They are beautiful and mythical and magical in a way that goes beyond the magic of witches or wizards, and they are slowly learning to tolerate him and the strange magic he carries around him.

The Swooping Evil actually gets _more_ obnoxious when it figures out that screaming in Credence's face is the quickest way to get Newt to pay attention to it (startling a nervous Obscurial who is still not always in complete control is not good, and Newt always intervenes), up until the day that it catapults down from the trees it had been sailing through, opens its mouth to shriek, and promptly finds itself rolled back into its cocoon as Credence catches it out of mid-air by the tail and scolds it as thoroughly as Newt usually does. After that, it is a little more co-operative, and at least it stops sitting on Credence's head and migrates to his back, where it only occasionally tries to sneak its proboscis into his ear. Credence cannot fathom why it would be so interested in his ear, and puts it down to Another Perfectly Normal Weird Magical Animal Thing. He has a lot of those.

For example, the Murtlap, which tends to be Another Perfectly Normal Weird Magical Animal Thing all on its own with no help from its behaviour or attitude. It has an unnerving fascination with Credence's feet, however, and will do its utmost to steal his shoes, usually aided and abetted (and, more often, argued with) by the Niffler, who likes how shiny said shoes are. The Niffler also likes how shiny Credence's buttons are, and steals almost all of them, along with half of a cuff-link pair Newt had lent him and the silver triangle _He_ had given him (he is considerably less distressed by this loss than he cares to think, mostly because he tries not to think about it too much at all).

Credence does not trust the Niffler. He admits as much to Newt one day, and Newt actually laughs, loud enough that the Graphorns come over to investigate, and only hesitate for a moment when they see Newt's companion. But Newt merely agrees that the Niffler is absolutely not to be trusted, and the subject changes to how well the oldest Graphorn calf is growing. The Graphorn calf has learned to like chewing on Credence's hand. This is definitely Another Perfectly Normal Weird Magical Animal Thing.

And then, after all of that, there is the Ice Sector.

The other Obscurus, smaller and weaker than his, stays a very, very long way away from him. In fact, it's several months before he even gets a glimpse of it, and something in his chest _shudders_ in recognition. Credence slides to the dusty ground of the enclosure outside and buries his face in his knees to that he doesn't have to look again. The Runespoor slithers out of its den to curl around him and hiss what it probably considers to be comforting things at him. Dougal goes to find another jam sandwich.

Newt finds him there several hours later, the other Obscurus trembling at the far end of the Ice Sector, and a distressed Demiguise trying to get around an extremely protective Runespoor in order to provide a sandwich that is now devoid of most of its jam, thanks to the Diricawls who had taken no notice of the fact that the treat was not for them, and had teleported in and out in order to steal mouthfuls whenever Dougal was distracted. Shooing the birds away, Newt manages to catch the attention of the Runespoor with a piece of steak long enough to pull an unresisting and now-calm Credence out of its coils.

He doesn't enter the Ice Sector again. Knowing that there was another _like_ him helped. Knowing that there was another _the same_ as him did not. Particularly seeing what happened to that one. Credence knows Newt by this point, and knows he would never attempt anything that would hurt Credence, even in the name of removing the black mass that has been his centre of gravity for far too long. But it still isn't comfortable knowledge, seeing the separation of power and person. 

The Runespoor doesn't care. It just seems to know when it should be there, and there it will be. It's nice to know that whenever he feels like he's going to shake himself apart, a large, three-headed snake will coil around him and keep him together by force if it has to. The fact that one third of it hates him actually makes it easier for him to accept it – in a way he's only now coming to recognise as twisted, it feels familiar to be uncertain whether he's going to be met with aggression or affection.

It becomes as much _his_ as a very large, three-headed snake can belong to anyone, which within the confines of Newt's suitcase and philosophy means that Credence probably belongs to _it_ rather than the other way around. Newt would never say that the creatures _belonged_ to him except in the abstract; _I am their guardian and thus they are mine to care for_. Therefore, Credence complies utterly with this, because whatever Newt says will always be the right thing to do as far as Credence is concerned. But the Runespoor does not care about Newt's philosophy, and greets Credence with happiness and a snap, and he works with what he can get (and an awful lot of anti-venom. Not as much as Newt feared – apparently the Obscurus offers regenerative magic far in advance of anything he has seen before, which is just as well all things considered – but still a lot) and gets slower at running away when startled and learns to just duck instead. It's not an easy lesson, but the Runespoor considers it a game well worth the teaching, and that is enough.

Once, Newt laments to him that he wishes he could speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes, just so that he actually knew that the Runespoor was happy in the suitcase. Credence looks over his shoulder at the three-headed serpent as two heads gang up on the third and pin it to the ground until it stops trying to get its bucket off of itself, and smiles. There are some things you just _know._

And so life goes on. Creatures come and go in the case, and as each one passes through Credence learns more – the Erumpent is returned to her African home and a new mate, and Credence learns about respecting how much space something needs to flourish; the Fire Crabs hatch another nest and for three weeks the ground is more fire than earth and Credence learns to accept Newt's gifts especially when they consist of a decent pair of fireproof boots; for a month they house a young, injured Acromantula, and Credence is tasked with teaching the giant spider to _speak,_ which is definitely not something he ever thought he'd be doing, and learns that even magical creatures have doubts sometimes.

One time the Silencing Charm wears off of the Fwooper a day earlier than expected and Newt is not in the suitcase when it happens. Credence spends the next fortnight curled in the Runespoor's den trying to distinguish between his own thoughts and the voices of people he knows are long gone. Newt does his best to look after him, but really Credence just wants to be left alone to shut out the voices one by one. Dougal brings him another jam sandwich, managing to keep this one from the Diricawls, but Credence doesn't touch it, and eventually the saddened Demiguise takes it away again. Even the right-hand head of the Runespoor can't bring itself to attack something so miserable, and Credence learns that some injuries run deeper than bone, and may never fully heal. But he also learns that the Runespoor is ticklish under the left side of the jaw of the middle head, which is something that even Newt didn't know.

The world is so much vaster than Credence could ever have imagined. They wind their way across all seven continents (there are magical species of penguin. _Penguin._ ) and with every jump Credence feels more and more like the middle head of the Runespoor, fallen in to grand fantasies that could not possibly exist, and the right-hand head of his mind that whispers that one day he will wake up and all this will be gone gets quieter and quieter, and the poison it likes to spit into his dreams is matched at last by the anti-venom of well-earned tiredness as the left-hand head part of his mind constantly plans how on God's green earth he is going to get Newt out of this scrape this time because _Merlin's beard Newt that's a Lethifold nest_.

And when they are deep in enemy territory, trying desperately to free one of the last living Rocs from Grindelwald's castle (Credence _hates_ this place almost instinctively, _hates_ it, _hates_ it and it is only the knowledge that he could not keep Newt and the Roc out of the destruction if he turned his rage inwards to unleash the full force of his Obscurus on the fortress that keeps him from doing precisely that) it becomes less a _scrape_ and more outright _danger_ when one of Grindelwald's followers finds them. The wizard doesn't bother with Newt or Credence, clearly knowing exactly what his master wants from the magizoologist as he lunges for the suitcase full of incredibly powerful magical creatures and Credence has only one chance and it is not the Obscurus of his past but the Runespoor he unleashes from the depths of the case he now calls home, it is the Runespoor who ignores the man shrieking in what might have been _actual Parseltongue_ to do who-knows-what, it is the Runespoor who crushes the man into pulp before Newt can get a word in edgeways.

Credence gets in trouble for that, but it's the sort of trouble that comes wrapped in concern, not anger. Newt never wants his animals _used_ for anything, and he certainly doesn't want one of them to be responsible for a death. Credence agrees entirely, because Newt is always right (except about wanting to go into dark caves marked Do Not Enter without Credence as backup). The Runespoor happily slithers off down the corridor despite both of their attempts to bring it back, and Newt reluctantly accepts that Credence didn't _ask_ the Runespoor to kill the man. It just did.

The right-hand head only tries to bite him once that evening.

Credence makes himself a jam sandwich and shares it with the Runespoor and an insistent Diricawl that braves the triple-headed serpent for a chance at home-made strawberry jam, and it tastes even better than Dougal's offerings. Newt laughs merrily at the group of them huddled in the entrance of the Runespoor's den, and then promptly joins them. After all, home-made strawberry jam is not to be sniffed at.

(The Runespoor actually does sniff at it, but that's because it wants to know what jam smells like.)

They'll get along just fine, the shadow and the serpent, both of them snakes in the grass – just happily minding their own business, warming up in a safe place around those who understand and treat them properly, until some great lumbering creature crashes through their safety and wails that they are dangerous animals that need to be stamped out, and _then,_ oh _then_ they will bite back.

Until then, though, they'll curl up in their den and eat jam sandwiches with the people - and creatures - that love them.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a lament for a darkness so great that even animals can see it and move themselves away, and very quickly morphed into “Credence Barebone Finds An Unusual Friend” which I promised myself I wouldn't write because everyone else writes them so nicely.  
> And then I started seeing links between Credence and the Runespoor (based off of the post [here](http://witdiseased.tumblr.com/post/155052176471/i-am-so-sad-this-was-cut-from-the-movie-but-newt) ) where it is clearly a lot bigger than the “six to seven feet” that the original Fantastic Beasts book suggests. And then things got interesting. And really long.  
> 


End file.
